We are just fresh from lunch at the fondue place—fabulous!!—and while we could happily float home in a food buzz and take a nap, we’re not going to because this is our final afternoon in Paris and we’re not gonna waste it. So, miles of insane hiking it is!
Lunch was literally a block away from the ridiculous Pompidou Center; like everywhere else this trip, we did not go in. This is so weird for us, to stay out on the streets… I guess I just wanted to experience actual Paris again, and that is best done not inside buildings, but outside on the streets and in the parks.
We wandered over to the irresistible Igor Stravinsky Fountain and it was as silly and provocative as ever—I wonder if he’d be pleased with his namesake fountain? I always got the impression he expected to be taken seriously, yet “his” fountain is clearly aimed mostly at children.
Luckily, we love frowning dark cathedrals, so we went in for a visit. While I failed to even catch the name of this one, you could tell there was some measure of historic grandeur still hiding inside, but mostly you got the impression of sad neglect: most of the efforts and funding these days go towards the more trophy churches, understandably.
Before too long we found ourselves back alongside the Louvre, and as always we had to wander back into the Cour Carrée—the innermost square courtyard, dating from the sixteenth century. This is yet another insanely historical place where hardly anyone is to be found: nearly any time, day or night, there will be only a quiet handful of people loitering about. I just don’t get it—we never miss a chance to walk in here and ogle the ancient palace some more!
After getting our fill, we walked out to the more crowded “outside” areas but even those were pleasantly empty on this dreary cold November afternoon.
It’s amazing how worthwhile it is to visit the Louvre even when you don’t set a single foot inside! In more pleasant weather, Sam used to buy herself a new cookbook and plop herself down by a big Tuileries reflecting pool all afternoon, giving me hours to explore the endless Louvre galleries as slowly as I liked—Sam’s marching speed inside an art museum is approximately five times that of mine haha
Slowly making our way down the Rue du Rivoli, we passed the street leading down into the Place Vendome, and for old-times sake decided to have a look around again. For years and years our Parisian home was always the Hotel Ritz, we were such reliable visitors that once, when our reservations somehow got screwed up, they put us up in the Presidential Suite for three nights, and believe me that was something to experience!
But we haven’t stayed there since the complete & total renovation of several years back. I am curious to see it, Sam is not: she prefers to keep her memories clear and only remember it the way it used to be when we brought the boys here so many times. I get that actually, half of me feels the same way. In any case it’s hella pricey these days, I don’t think you can get a closet there for under $2500 a night now.
It was wonderful to see everything again!! I was sad not to be staying there, but I dunno… $2500 a night just strikes me as stupid, I don’t think I would enjoy the experience, I think I would just be focussed on the crazy price the whole time. Plus, we love a normal hotel which is just a few blocks away!
As usual for us this trip—and only this trip!!—we worried about our next meal only when we got hungry. And today when we became hungry for dinner, it was after spending the entire blustery November day outside in the fall air hiking all over Paris: we want a place nice and close!
So we returned to that “touristy” restaurant just down the street, with oysters out front. This time, they were a lot busier and we didn’t get a prime seat up front, they had to seat us in a larger room inside somewhere. We didn’t much care—and in any case it turned out to be more interesting because the next table to be sat after us were a bunch of traveling Russians. They were reasonably quiet though, and interestingly ostentatious; in any event, when it was time to pay, one of the men produced this giant fold of Euros that was absolutely huge, I have never seen such a wad of cash like that before.
I was too tired to bother with more pictures, but I at least got one of the gloppy dessert lol
Dinner was great, but I could tell I was quickly winding down. No pictures of the various courses; no pictures of the walk back; heck I don’t think I took another pic in Paris this trip! It was all a blur: back to the Brighton for our final night, in the morning we wimped out and took a cab to CDG for our flight, had an innocuous journey back to Cincy… my very next photo after the dessert is a spectacular view of downtown Cincinnati many many hours later!
It was a great trip, a long time coming even though it was a last-minute idea.
We saw London! We saw France! We saw….. 😀
I’m writing up this account of the trip eight months after the fact, so believe me when I say I can’t wait for us to go back!
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